


Like a Fine Wine, It Comes With Age

by ohmyonomatopia



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Backstory, F/M, Gen, Young Captain Hook | Killian Jones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-13
Updated: 2014-07-13
Packaged: 2018-02-08 16:50:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1948794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohmyonomatopia/pseuds/ohmyonomatopia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He was a sailor, a lieutenant, then a captain.<br/>He has sailed through the most insurmountable of waves and experienced the quietest, and loneliest, of nights.<br/>In his 300 or so years of existence, everything has prepared him for this moment.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like a Fine Wine, It Comes With Age

_Imagine this._

It's the happiest day of his life.  **Killian Jones at 18** , graduates the Royal Naval Academy as a Volunteer First Class to become a Midshipman aboard the Jewel of the Realm. He's joining his brother Lt. William Jones on this inaugural vessel to celebrate King Wilhelm the Eighth's coronation. Liam can't smile any wider with pride as his brother ascends the podium.

**19-year-old Officer Jones** meeting the eyes of a rather fetching bar wench at a tavern two kingdoms away from home. He hears a snigger and turns to catch his brother elbowing his side. _"We're docked for the night, brother."_ With a wink and a knowing smile, Liam leaves him to scowl over his wine (certainly not rum, never rum), muttering "Good form, good form" under his breath. He couldn't wait until they set sail in the morning.

**Sr. Petty Officer Jones at 21** , finally passing his examination and receiving his Lieutenant's uniform while his brother, now Captain of the Jewel, proudly looks on. Their parents would have been proud.

**Lieutenant** **Killian Jones, now 22,** expert navigator and firm believer in good form, finally spies the strange island called Neverland; a heavy feeling sinking deep in his gut. He pushes it aside as he stashes the sextant in its satchel, seeing the brightness in his Captain's eyes at the promise of a hero's journey.

* * *

 

**24-year old ~~Lieu~~  Captain Jones of the Jolly Roger**, deep in his rum and still mourning the loss of his brother, is ensconced in his quarters away from the crew. He is shook awake by one of his officers; a ship is spied upon the horizon. Heaving himself onto the quarter deck and assuming a pirate's scowl, he barks orders to raise the top sail and pursue the merchant vessel. Maybe a bit of pillaging will do him some good.

**Captain Jones** is perhaps the youngest pirate captain to have gained such a fearsome reputation. _**25 years couldn't have hardened such a man**_ , some say. Yet the Captain knows better. Still, the navy sailor in him cannot let go of good form. He plunders wares and pillages villages, but only those under the control of the tyrant King Wilhelm.

**At 27, Captain Jones** meets a woman like no other, at a tavern no less. But something about this Milah strikes him; she is different from the rest. Beautiful and spirited, yes. But she's slightly older, more experienced, and there's a desire in her eyes for adventure and the open seas. She slips away from his fingers only to rejoin him in his ship much later in the night. Her cowardly husband doesn't deserve her anyway.  
  
When **Killian is 29** , he returns to the old tavern where he met his Milah, in hopes of garnering information about her son. _It's time he joins us_ , she says, pleading with him to help her find Bae. Instead he runs into a crocodile and his life takes a turn for the worst. The loss of a hand is no match for the loss of a heart, and Captain Hook sets sail to the place where he knows pain and anger make him stronger.  
  
In Neverland, **29 stays 29 for 300 more years.** Revenge, anger and the ever-present pain of Milah's death drive Captain Hook to the brink of madness. Within that time he meets Baelfire on that damned island and hoping he can finally let go of his revenge, he takes the boy under his wing. Soon Hook finds out that happy endings are never in the cards for a pirate.  
  
When he catches word of a red-headed lass who lived with, and survived, The Dark One, Captain Hook returns to the Enchanted Forest finally able to taste his revenge. But as it turns out, he never should have trusted anyone to aid him, even fellow villains hell-bent on vengeance. After a brief (and nearly unfortunate detour) in Wonderland, he turns 30 on a remote island. **He remains 30 for another 28 years.**  
  
 **When Hook (or Killian? He doesn't even know anymore) turns 31** , it's an unassuming moment in a random tavern. He is alone, as he always has been, without his crew and usual bevy of women. There's an image at the back of his mind where golden hair and bright green eyes fill his thoughts, every day and every night. Suddenly, a white dove lands in front of him, knocking over the jug of wine, with a note and bottle attached to its leg. After reading the note, for the first time in a year, Captain Hook smiles.

* * *

  
**On his 32nd birthday** , the first birthday he actually celebrates in 3 centuries or so, Killian Jones is surrounded by a host of well-wishers. Granny's Diner is no stranger to these kinds of celebrations; full to the brim of people, beer and lasagna.

The lights go off and he sees Henry wheeling in a large cake dotted with so many candles it lights up his whole face. Green eyes meet blue as he spies his Savior, her smile so reminiscent of Liam's ages ago.

He steps up to the trolley, ready to blow out the candles, reminded so much of the 343 years it took to get to this very moment.

**_Never has he felt happier._ **

**Author's Note:**

> My first ever little piece of OUAT CS fanfiction! As it is officially my inaugural AO3 work, I hope to be welcomed warmly by everyone here :) Leave a comment, and let's talk!


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